The Blairsville Borough Council discussed a video gaming bill recently passed in the State House and approved a draft budget for the coming year.
Borough Manager Tim Evans explained that under House Bill 271, Act 42, casino licenses will be auctioned by the State on January 15th. Municipalities that don’t pass a resolution by the end of the year forbidding such licensed casinos could leave themselves powerless if a licensee would choose that municipality as a location for a casino:
“They will be allowed to come in and put a casino anywhere within the borough. If we pass the resolution, then the decision would come back to this municipality on whether we would allow it or not allow it.”
Any municipality that passes such a resolution could rescind it at any time, should it eventually choose to permit a casino. The council plans to research further and will make a decision during December’s meeting.
In other news, the council passed a draft budget in an amount just under $2.4 million with no tax increase.
Lastly, the council voted in favor of transferring its Liquid Fuels and Local Economic Investment Fund checking accounts to the Pennsylvania Local Government Investment Trust, or PLGIT, as interest yields would be 1.19% rather than the current .01% the borough receives locally.
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